Blind Date
by Sandy87
Summary: Keira goes blind right before a date with Jak, a.k.a. Mr. No-Speak-Um. He's got his own problems, though. Short 'n' silly, and very fluffy. Especially the Flut-Flut...heh, inside joke.


Disclaimer: I own squat. Naughty Dog owns it all. I'm just using their characters. ... Oh, wait, I do own something: Jak's voice! LOL. And, I own this story's plot.  
  
A/N: Yes, I know that there's probably absolutely nothing wrong with Jak's voice (due to the fact that he tried to tell the sage his name, and tell Samos what happened, not use sign language, and the only reason he didn't was that he was cut off by Daxter), but, for the sake of this story, there is. So there. It's my story, so it follows my laws of reality. That means...I could make ottsels fly! But I won't (you know how easy it is to scare Daxter; he'd probably scream like a little girl).  
  
A/N2: I can't decide, and apparently, neither can Naughty Dog. How on Earth do you spell it? Is it Keira or Kiera? They've got it both ways on their website.  
  
Blind Date  
  
Keira fiddled with the A-GraV Zoomer, making some last minor adjustments to its steering controls, which had been damaged during an overly-sharp turn. The Geologist in Rock Village had asked her to come help her get rid of a few Lurker dogs, which had gotten into the Precursor Basin some how, before they attacked the Lightning Moles she was studying. She didn't want the dogs killed, just removed, which meant that the steering controls needed to be absolutely perfect. But, alas, perfect control does not exist on a Zoomer, which meant she had to bring the Flut-Flut for backup. She just hoped the young bird would allow her on without Daxter, who the chick thought was her mother.  
  
Deciding that the Zoomer was as good as it would ever get, she walked slowly to the local Birdwater's hut, hoping the old woman wouldn't give her an earful about men. She liked the birdwatcher - sure, everyone around did - but getting a rehashed version of the speech her father had given her many years ago was not her idea of fun. Good, she was off somewhere else. Taking a deep breath, she walked around behind the small hut to where the Flut-Flut was being kept.  
  
"Krr," the oversized bluejay greeted her. She shifted her weight and peered over the girl's shoulder. "Kawaa?"  
  
"No, sorry, 'mama' isn't here. Just me." Keira saddled the fledgeling quickly, then slipped the bridle over her upper beak. Climbing on with a little help from a small rock nearby - and no help from her nerves - she rode back as quickly as she dared. With the transpad, she sent the Zoomer to the edge of the Basin using coordinates she had logged from the boys' communicator. Once the Flut-Flut had calmed down enough from the innitial shock of the 'dissappearance' of a large metal object, she pushed the chick through the Warp Gate and jumped through herself.  
  
Landing with her face in the Flut-Flut's tail feathers and her feet on her ears was not pleasant. The Blue Sage wasn't in his lab; he must've been out studying the not-so-Lost Precursor City using the room Jak had raised. She rode the Flut-Flut to meet the Geologist just outside the Basin, then both of them made their way up the steep slope using a tiny path the older woman had discovered on one of her early expeditions. After giving her instructions not to harm the dogs, only to tranquilize them using a blowgun dart she had devised, the redhead cocked her head and asked slyly,  
  
"So, how are thing going between you and Jak? I heard the two of you really hit it off at the Citadel where the Sages were imprissoned."  
  
Keira caught her breath in her throat, swallowed it, then thought about what to say back. It was somewhat embarrassing to her. It was one thing for the Sages to know, because they weren't really prone to gossiping, but Daxter just had to tell every person he came across. It was something of a joke to him, just like everything else. "Oh, I don't know," she said at length. "I mean, I'm supposed to be attracted to this guy, and, like, he never says anything. He won't even say 'hi' when we see each other!"  
  
"Give 'im time, honny. Just think how you'll feel when he does talk. Immagine if the first thing he ever said was to ask you to marry him! Think of how you'd feel!" The two shared a momentary laugh, which was cut off by the sharp pfft! of the blowgun and the sickening thunk as it struck a dog. "My, you're a good shot."  
  
"Mm, thanks." She didn't let on that she'd watched how Jak aimed and shot Yellow Eco, but the pinkness across her nose and at the tips of her ears told that she was at least thinking of him. The Geologist smiled knowingly and emptied another syringe full of anesthesia into the dog's shoulder and removed the dart, then muzzled the sleeping beast and slipped a thick lether strap through its collar. "What are we going to do with them? If we just take them to the Swamp, they'll come back, right?"  
  
"I was hoping you'd take them out to Misty Island. You live near there, don't you?"  
  
"Yes, but...I can't really take them over there. My dad said it was off limmits, and I really don't want to become a blue...whatever Daxter is. Or anything else strange. Gol and Maia are gone, and no one else would know what to do." She climbed on the Flut-Flut, hoping the she wouldn't need that infernal Zoomer. It was very annoying to be trying to chase down a Lurker without hitting it, only to slam into the wall because of a sharp turn, or to be aiming and hit a sudden bump and waste a precious dart on a plant or rock. Besides, it was noisy. Her ears always rang after she rode it, and it would scare the dogs before she ever got in range. It might even frighten the Moles above ground, forcing her to chase the blind things back into their holes.  
  
She chased, darted, and muzzled a half dozen Lurker Dogs before she was through in the late afternoon, and not once had she been forced to use the A-GraV Zoomer to catch an exceptionally fast one. The Flut-Flut was calm for the most part, and only jumped in surprise twice when they came upon a growling, barking, slobbering animal. However, she shied away from the yellow, radiactively-marked Dark Eco Boxes, as she had had more than one blow up under her feet in the Boggy Swamp nearby. As she dragged the last ones to the Geologist, she did not notice the yellow box in the path, but the Flut-Flut did, and she threw her rider.  
  
Keira landed mere inches from the box, causing it to explode in her face. However, when she regained her wits, she could feel all her limbs, and was certain she was uninjured, aside from her eyes, which burned tremedously.  
  
Back in Sandover Village...  
  
Jak was busy running back and forth through his Uncle's hut, going absolutely balistic. "You gotta chill out, man. Play it cool, like me," Daxter told his friend from a seemingly safe perch on a bookshelf. The blond turned and glared at the Ottsel, who was perhaps a forth his size, and wordlessly threatened him. "Come on, it's not that big of a deal. Keira just asked you to walk around the beach with her. It's not like you're getting married or anything, RIGHT?" In truth, Daxter was jealous. Deeply jealous. The kind of jealous that...you get the picture. He was not a happy little ball of fuzziness.  
  
In actuallity, Jak was not nervous about the fact that he and Keira were 'going out'. No, he was more nervous about his speaking abilities. He'd been practicing behind one of the Sentinals, trying to teach himself to say even the shortest of sentences. Her name was easy enough: the "hiya" sound he'd often made while punching was very simmilar and could be easily modified. Anything else was almost impossible, though. The sound of his voice pleased him, when he could make it work. Otherwise, it just made him disgruntled that he couldn't tell Daxter to shut up, or tell about a strange creature he'd seen in the Forbidden Jungle, or even ask his Uncle to pass the Yakkow steak!  
  
It was late, almost sundown. Keira should've been back by now. She'd told him she was going to help the Geologist in Rock Village, and assured him she'd be back in time, to the point that she would leave in the middle of something, no matter how important it might've been. He figgured she was just waiting for him to come pick her up. After all, wasn't that the normal way to do things? Something was amiss, however; he could feel it. With a last-minute glance at Daxter to try and tell him not to follow them - and knowing full well that he probably would - Jak headed outside and up to Samos's hut.  
  
She wasn't in her workshop, or her room in back, so he climbed the long ramp to the top level. The Flut-Flut cooed at him from across the room. What was she doing here? Keira was never so irresponsible as to her out of her steaked-out area behind the Birdwatcher's house unless they were doing something which required the bird. Samos and the Rock Village Geologist were standing in front of her, and they looked worried. "She just had a little incounter with a box of the stuff, Samos," the Geologist was saying. "There's nothing that a few day's rest won't help, as you can see. And your Green Eco might speed things up even more."  
  
"I can't beleive that you allowed my daughter to...to..." The Green Sage stopped, at a loss for words. The object of their discussion started, however, when Jak stepped on the squeaky board. "Oh, Jak, it's you. I thought for a second it was that little furball Daxter. He's the last-"  
  
"Jak?" Keira spoke up, looking around as if she were blind. The boy atributed this to the glare of the evening sunlight comming in the window. "Jak? Where are you? I can't see." She stood up, holding her arms out to feel for obsticles.  
  
"Keira, sit down! You're going to trip!" Samos's words distracted her, however, and she did indeed trip over a small ridge in the base of the furnace. Her blind stumblings were not unnoticed by the mute, and he caught her rather easily. The deep, musty smell of him was all the girl's sharp nose needed to tell her that this was, indeed, Jak. She regained her bearings using senses long since dulled by disuse: the heat of the furnace, the thumping of the Flut-Flut's feet as she lifted one leg to scratch, the slightest sounds of people's breaths. Even the salty taste of the air gave her a welcome sense of familiarity in a world gone dark.  
  
"Aw, dad, you knew we were supposed to go for a walk along the beach tonight. I can't let a minor setback like this spoil the fun."  
  
"Fun?" The older man jumped into the air, hovering for effect. "How in the name of all that's green could you possibly have fun walking around on that old beach when you're blind as a bat?! Wait, wait, don't answer that, I don't even want to know." A nervous laugh from his daughter and a small, embarrassed grin from her male friend told that they hadn't really been thinking of such things, but now that he had mentioned it...No, that wouldn't be right, would it, now? "Fine, fine, run along. Go have fun on your walk. And stay out of trouble!"  
  
Knowing that such a thing was impossible for teenagers, old Samos climbed his lookout tower and prayed that they'd stay in his line of sight. At the moment, however, it was interesting enough to watch Jak try to silently coax his daughter across the rickety rope and wood bridge. He would franticly wave his hands around like a lunatic, then remember that the very reason she was being so cautious was because she couldn't see, and, therefore, could not see his rediculous antics, in which case he took her arm and lead her at a snail's pace. Then, tiring of this, he would jump and startle her by shaking the bridge, causing her to either cling to him or drop and wrap her arms under the planks, the former getting a mixed reaction of pleasure and embarrassment.  
  
As the pair made their way across the second bridge, a sneaky thought formed in the boy's mind. There was no way Keira could ever make her way down the hills on the northwest side of the village without her eyesight, so he would have to carry her! Oh, what a crazy, insane, perfect, wonderful plan! He laughed silently to himself as they passed the sculptor's hut, the brown-spotted, yellow-and-white muse leaping down from her perch around her charge's shoulders to chatter amiably at them, tail waving playfully. "What's that?" the cyan-haired girl wondered aloud, not regonizing the clicky, churring, squirl-like voice. "Is it the little cute furball that artist guy has?" Jak, unable to answer, merely nodded dumbly in full knowledge that she didn't see.  
  
As they came to the series of grass-covered rocks that led to Sentinal Beach, Keira paused nervously. "How am I going to get down? It's more that just a little step from one to the next; it's at least a three- foot jump. What are we going to do, Jak?" Without a moment's hesitation, the golden-haired boy placed one hand behind her knees and supported her shoulder with the other, effectively lifting her to a comfortable position. "Oh, I guess this will work. Anyway, it's nice." She wrapped her arms around his neck, comfortably nestling her head in the crook of his shoulder and causing Jak to redden. Samos's blood was boiling at the sight of this, before the Geologist came up and gave a reasonable explaination. She also told him to get down so that they wouldn't get that nervous feeling that someone was watching them. He complied, rather unwillingly.  
  
Even though they were now on the level sand of the beach, Jak was reluctant to set her down. After all, there were Sand Worms in their pits and crabs everywhere. That, and he enjoyed the feeling of holding her. "I can hear the waves. Are we there? Put me down." Reluctantly, he set her on her feet, but kept an arm around her protectively. They walked along the water's edge, waves playfully soaking their leather-wrapped feet. "It's wet," Keira laughed. "And cold!" He made a soft "hmn" sound in agreement. He lead her slowly along the water's lapping edge to a place beneath the first Sentinal, his private practice spot.  
  
"Hey, where are we? It feels darker here, like we're under something." Her eyesight was comming back, but it was only outlines and shadows. Everything was rather murky, like someone had put her in an almost- pitch dark room with a veil over her face. With only the squinch-squinch of the sand under their feet and the frolicing waves for a sort of background music, Jak slid his arm from her shoulder down to her hand, grasping it and leading her to a stone ledge they could sit on. They stayed there for several long moments, both oblivious to the night sky's beauty for their own reasons.  
  
Finally, the waiting got to Jak. He was used to going places and doing things, not sitting silently in one place. As he stood up, Keira followed suit, wondering what was wrong. 'Did I do something wrong?' she wondered. 'Is he mad at me? Oh, I hope not.' She felt him grab her shoulders, gently, as if she might break. "Jak?" She could see a faint outline of his face, mere inches from hers, against the reflective water. The boy licked his lips nervously and took a breath to calm himself.  
  
"Kei-ra?" he tried, forcing his voice out. This was the first time he'd ever spoken in front of some one else; even Daxter had never heard his real voice.  
  
"What? I, uh...Jak? You can talk?" She inclined her head a bit, tilting it so that her ear was close to his mouth to catch the faint syllables.  
  
He gathered himself once more, and, in as mature a tone as he could muster, replied,  
  
"Keira, I love you."  
  
  
  
A/N3: Aw, how sweet! Sappy mush! Yeah, I know, stupid fic. I just felt like writing it. So there. Love it, hate it; review it, or don't. I just wanted to add my mess to the tiny bit of fanwork out there. 'Sides, I thought it was kinda cute. And, I had fun writing it. So there. 


End file.
